The multifaceted roles of long noncoding RNAs in pancreatic cancer: an update on what we know

Wenjia Zhou,Rui Huang,Junjie Zhao,Chunlong Li,Jingjing Ji,Shan Yu,Zhaowei Qu,Lu Chen,Ge Lou,Chao Li,Shangwei Ning,Mian Guo,Feng Luo,Sheng Tai,Xiaorong Guo,Xinqi Jia

doi:10.1186/s12935-020-1126-1

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Due to the shortage of effective biomarkers for predicting survival and diagnosing PC, the underlying mechanism is still intensively investigated but poorly understood. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) provide biological functional diversity and complexity in protein regulatory networks. Scientific studies have revealed the emerging functions and regulatory roles of lncRNAs in PC behaviors. It is worth noting that some in-depth studies have revealed that lncRNAs are significantly associated with the initiation and progression of PC. As lncRNAs have good properties for both diagnostic and prognostic prediction due to their translation potential, we herein address the current understanding of the multifaceted roles of lncRNAs as regulators in the molecular mechanism of PC. We also discuss the possibility of using lncRNAs as survival biomarkers and their contributions to the development of targeted therapies based on the literature. The present review, based on what we know about current research findings, may help us better understand the roles of lncRNAs in PC.

Highlights

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a fatal malignancy with quite stable global morbidity and mortality rates compared with those of other cancers over the past two decades [1, 2]
The epigenetic modification of Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) is accomplished through transcription and requires the transcriptional initiation, overlapping expression or RNA-dependent regulation of nearby genes, and a typical example is the case of the lncRNA XIST [25]. Another mechanism of target gene regulation is achieved by binding to chromatin complexes or causing histone epigenetic modifications, which is the case for the lncRNA HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) [4]
As a deeper understanding of transcripts improved our knowledge of RNAs, an increasing number of cancer-related experiments have demonstrated that lncRNAs are important regulators with different mechanisms in PC (Fig. 2)

Summary

Introduction

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a fatal malignancy with quite stable global morbidity and mortality rates compared with those of other cancers over the past two decades [1, 2]. Since the abnormal expression and dysfunction of lncRNAs are closely associated with human malignant tumor formation [18, 19], understanding how lncRNAs regulate gene expression at the chromatin remodeling, transcriptional, posttranscriptional and protein levels is becoming extremely important for cancer research [20, 21].

Results

Conclusion